A4- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 14, 2000

“TERRACE:

‘STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432
EMAIL: standard@kermode.net

Methanex blues

METHANEX HAS several problems in its cam-
paign for lower costs to justify re-opening its Ki-
timat methanol plant.

One of those is that it cannot control the price it
pays for natural gas, the raw material it uses to
produce methanol. It’s the largest cost Methanex
faces and the price just keeps going up.

But unlike the rest of us gas users who have no
alternative save perhaps knitting heavy socks and
sweaters for the winter ahead, Methanex’s re-
sponse is to seek what amounts to concessions.

Specifically, the company wants lower provincial .
royalty payments for the gas it buys, cheaper .

transmission costs from Pacific Northern Gas
which delivers its natural gas and lower property
taxes for its Kitimat plant.

Methanex doesn’t like the word concession. In-
stead it calls its plan a partnership, a sharing of
the risk of doing business based on the chance to
gain profits when the company’s income rises as
the price of methanol goes up.

So what we have is three parts to this situation.
The first is that Methanex is a victim of the free

market economy in that demand for natural gas is

forcing the price up because of pipelines now
reaching into the lucrative United States market.
Call it the result of good old-fashioned capitalism.

The second part involves us agreeing to lower

royalties and taxes. This means, for example, less .

money going to the provincial government and
less money to the District of Kitimat. This is
based on the prospect of sharing profits, another
hallmark of good old-fashioned capitalism. But it
also involves a mixture of capitalism and state in-
tervention.

The third part is tied to the second in that poten-
tial profits will only come if the price of methanol
rises, another risk of capitalism in that the pro-
mise of profits is by no means a guarantee they
will occur.

Methanex is trying to sell this public-private -

sector partnership by saying the alternative is to
lose hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars. It
also says that by accepting its plan, the govern-

ments will not be any worse off than if the plant .

closed forever.

All this may hold together if Methanex just had
its plant in Kitimat. But it doesn’t. It has metha-
nol plants elsewhere in the world with costs that
are substantially less than the Kitimat plant. And
since those costs are so much lower, their profits
are that much higher.

In effect, Methanex is asking us to lower its

costs here in the expectation of sharing a profit -

down the road while it continues to do well else-
where. To put that another way, Methanex wants
our help in competing against itself.

If Methanex wants to truly explore a partner-
ship, then it should be willing to extend its profit
sharing concept to include its plants overseas.

SA
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RIBBON

MEMBER OF —
B.C. ANO YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSGCIATION, a
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION is
AND 4 CNA. sonnei
B.C, PRESS COUNCIL Set ener HF Oo
Sarving the Terrace and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday cf each week at 3210 Clinton Strael,
Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2.
Stories, photographs, ilustratlons, designs and typestyles In tha Terrace Standard ara the property of tha
copyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid., its iustration repro services and advertising
agendas.
Reproduction (n whola or in part, without written permission, is spacifically prohibited.
Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Department, for payment of pastage In cash.
Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents

_for their time and talents

oe INANUT

HELL 1+.

TSH
LET'S KEEP QUR FINGERS CROSSED
AT MY SCHEDULED WALK-QUT

T-MORKOW

WILL BE OVER BY
MORNING.

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Paper owner breath of fresh air

VICTORIA - A while back, at
the NDP convention in Van-
couver, there was a booth sell-
ing ‘Boycott the National
Post’ buttons.
Shortly after Conrad Black
announced that he was selling

_ his Canadian newspaper em-

pire, including 50 per cent of
- the National Post, to CanWest
Globai Communications, An-
thony Westell heaped con-

. tempt on Black in a vicious

piece in the Globe, and Mail.
He wasn’t sorry, he wrote, to
see Black “going, going and,
before long, gone.”

And who, you may ask, is
Anthony Westell? Well, he’s
the director of Carleton Uni-
versity’s School of Journalism
who, in his words, has
“practised journalism for 50
years,” which prompted
Christie Blatchford, columnist

for the Post, to advise West~..
> ell: “don’t: Slop: now, _Practis-

ing, that is.’

Way to go, Christie. I, too,
wonder where this intense
hatred for Black and the Post
comes from.

Ah yes, Black has a ten-
dency to be less than flattering
in his description of journal-
ists, having referred to many
of them as youngster who sub-
stitute opinion for insight or
“aged hacks toiling under a
miasma of decrepitude.”

HUBERT BEYER

Yes, and? That very accur-
ately describes a lot of so-
called journalists which is,
why I prefer to think of myself
as a newspaperman.

I have worked with
“journalists” who refused ta
divulge their home phone
number to the city editor and
got-the union’s backing, ‘with

: the result that if the desk had
any question about a story
after they’d gone home, they
couldn’t get in touch with
them.

I have worked with
“journalists” who would refuse
to finish a story at quitting
time because the company
didn’t pay overtime. Black had
their number, all right, and
didn’t relish having any of
these deadbeats working for

him.

Of course, there is also
Black’s audacity to have an
opinion that differs from the
bland, politically-correct,
middle-of-the-road, liberal
concoction that has been mas-
querading for newspaper con-
tent in Canada for decades.

That this right-wing whacko
had the nerve to start a news-
paper which more accurately
reflected his views was simply
unforgivable in the eyes of his
detractors. That Black gave
this country one of the best
newspapers it had seen in de-
cades, eluded their grasp.

1 can understand why die-
hard socialists dislike the Post
and, by exlension, Black, Both
do their best to expose social-
ism as a failed experiment and
socialism with a human face
as maudlin balderdash.

Having witnessed the de-

“mise of the Soviet Union,*1'
can attest’ to the former: ‘Hav- :

ing lived in British Columbia
for the last 30 years, ] cannot
dismiss the latter out of hand.

Black himself responded in
typical fashion to the outpour-
ing of vitriol, following the an-
nouncement tat he was pulling
up newspaper stakes in Cana-
da.

In a parting shot in the Post,
he referred to the “eulogistic
farewells” as having ranged

from “banal to energetically
nasty, to the unimaginably
pompous.”

And he concluded; “to my
enemies, some of whom have
claimed they will miss me,
your nostalgia is premature and
completely unrequited.”

It is obvious that Black
doesn’t me to defend him. I do
so only to go on record that as
someone who has had the time
of his life in this business for
40 years, I, for one, am disap-
pointed that Black is pulling
out, ,

A change in ownership al-
ways brings changes in the way
a company operates. The Post
suiled me just fine as it was,
thank you. ‘

In can only hope that fzzy
Asper, the new part-owner of
he Post, knows a good thing
when he sees one and leaves
this paper to hold up ils unique
mirror to*Canadians, |
«Tf I were any younger, I
would be inclined to kidnap
Black and hold him to ransom
for a job at the Post, as long as
he still owns half of it.

And for that, he could even
call me an aged hack.

Beyer can be reached at:

_E = m a iol
hubert@coolcom.com; Tel
(250) 387-6900; Web

Artp: /fwww. hubertbeyer.com

Tougher

MANY OF us occasionally
keep a library book longer
than we should. Last year we
paid $15,441 in overdue fines,
in addition to those books we
sneaked back fine-free during
the one week of the year when
the library forgives fines.

Currently Terrace public Li-
brary is owed about $80,000 in
overdue fines and books, vi-
deos and tapes that were never
returned, That’s a monumental
amount when you consider
books can be borrowed for a
month, free. The $80,000 grew
by 25 cent fines, $20 videos
and $30 books.

This slaggering amount is
even harder to comprehend in
view of the two-year old se-
curity system which whistles
wildly whenever any item not
properly signed out is taken
past the exit barrier.

Failing to return overdue
books is more than an incon-

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THROUGH BIFOCALS.
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venience to other readers who
might wish to view the mater-
ial, It’s theft of public property
under $5000. Librarians don't
label it theft; they’re too for-
giving, too grateful to see a
book in circulation,

Why does the library conti-
nue to lend books to a hoar-

" » SOME

You SHOULD HAVE”
ASERIOUS WORP
OR TWO WITH «

der? As stewards of public
property, librarians need to say
‘No’ to further borrowing until
even minimal overdue fines
are paid rather than letting
fines add up to collection
agency proportions. For three
years the library has been
using a collection agency to
try to collect overdue fines and
persuade patrons to. return bor-
rowed materials. But. that’s
rounding up horses after
they've fled the barn.

Up front, librarians must re-
pard any overdue fine as a
debt to be paid before anything
mare is borrowed. The post of-
fice doesn’t let you mail a let-
ter without a stamp because
you’re short of change that
morning. You'd never hear a
postal clerk say, “That’s okay.
You can pay it next time.”

And a cut-off point should
be established - boldly posted

for all patrons to read - after

UR oy A GRT

ey,

| MAREN IZER™

fine stance needed

which further borrowing will be
refused until fines are paid and
materials returned, ,

After all, if you're overdue
paying your hydro bill, your
electrical supply is cut off
without apology. And if you
don’t keep up your cable pay-
ments that, too, will be termi-
nated without a “Sorry”.

For those who persist in
hanging on to library property
and nat paying fines, their out-
standing debt should be added
to their property taxes.

One borrower owes the li-
brary $644 for the 30 books he
borrowed ... in 1999, If he had
possession of a stolen bike
worth that amount, we'd send a
cop out fetch the bike back.
But because its books from a
public library, we treat it as an
oversight.

This borrower isn’t forgetful.
He’s a thicf and should be
dealt with accordingly,